LINKLETTER — The cause of a late-night fire Wednesday that gutted a Linkletter home remains under investigation.

The interior and most of the exterior of the blue-and-white two-storey century-old home was destroyed by the blaze, which was spotted by neighbours just before midnight.

No one was in the home at the time. The homeowner is now staying with relatives.

“The call came in at 11:50 last night. When I arrived there the back end of the house was fully involved with flames coming out the windows and up through the roof,” said Summerside Fire Department Chief Jim Peters. “Neighbours were there and told us there was no one in the house.”

Stations one and two from Summerside, along with Miscouche and Wellington fire departments responded. It took more than hour to put out the blaze.

With no fire hydrants in the rural area, water had to be trucked in from Summerside to extinguish the fire, said Peters.

Four trucks were continuously travelling into the city and hauling water back to the scene while crews and three trucks were onsite fighting the fire.

“We were there until about 4 o’clock knocking down hot spots and we left a crew there all night to make sure that it would stay out,” added the chief. “We had enough water moving that we never ran out at any time.”

The provincial fire marshal was on scene late Thursday morning sifting through debris in order to determine the fire’s cause.

He left the scene to investigate another fire in western P.E.I. and is expected to return fire Friday morning to conclude his investigation.

That fire in western P.E.I. destroyed a cottage in Cascumpec.

Like the Linkletter fire, the Cascumpec fire also remains under investigation.

“We have security there. The fire marshal’s office had a preliminary look at it,” Peters said, referring to the Linkletter fire.

“We know it started in one area of the house but we don’t know why.”

Due to the home’s age and construction, there were issues in knocking down the fire, he added. The more than 100-year-old home was insulated with woodchips, which caused the fire to spread quickly.

“There were openings in the walls from top to bottom. Once a fire gets in there it just spreads right through the house,” said Peters.

There were a number of buildings and three oil tanks belonging to Linkletter Farms only metres from the home, which was a cause for concern for firefighters.

Luckily, said Peters, there was very little wind at the time, which helped the departments to quickly get the fire under control and prevent it from spreading.